Source: floridaactioncommittee.org 6/3/26
In Commonwealth v. Richard Cox, the Circuit Court of Arlington County struck down Virginia’s sex-offender “loitering” statute as unconstitutionally vague, reinforcing a fundamental principle that is often forgotten when laws target registrants: constitutional protections apply to everyone.
The Virginia law made it a felony for certain individuals on the sex offender registry to “loiter” within 100 feet of schools and child day-care facilities. While the legislature chose to criminalize “loitering,” it never defined what that term actually meant. As a result, the court found that ordinary people had no way of knowing when lawful conduct crossed the line into criminal conduct. Was it illegal to stop and tie a shoe? Wait for a ride? Stand on a public sidewalk? Walk slowly through an area? The statute provided no answers.
In dismissing the charges against Richard Cox, the court held that the law violated due process because it failed to provide fair notice of what conduct was prohibited and gave law enforcement officers virtually unlimited discretion to determine who was committing a crime. The court relied heavily on the United States Supreme Court’s decision in City of Chicago v. Morales, which similarly struck down an anti-loitering ordinance because it left citizens guessing about what behavior was prohibited and encouraged arbitrary enforcement.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the decision was…